New Year's tour to Bashkiria
fabulous landscapes, cozy warm houses, a sauna and warm company!
Tour dates: 03 - 11 January 2026
For today, August 15, 2025, 4 places from 6 are available on this tour.
What is needed for ideal New Year holidays: fabulous winter landscapes covered with fluffy snow, cozy warm houses in the middle of picturesque nature with the opportunity to take a steam bath or cook food on coals and a warm company of like-minded people ready to discover new places on the map. You will find all this in the New Year tour of Bashkortostan.
We will see icy waterfalls and cliffs that look like fairytale castles, non-freezing lakes with blue water, caves, gorges, and historical landmarks.
The format of the car tour means that we will be able to see diverse landmarks that are relatively far from each other, and we will not need to carry heavy backpacks and freeze outside for too long. Overnight stays in warm houses at cozy tourist centers make this tour comfortable and accessible to everyone.
Tour organizer and guide on the route:
VICTORIA SHATALOVA
Professional traveler, organizer of author's tours with years of experience. Has visited countries of the world and regions of Russia. Participant and organizer of many hikes, rafting and climbing trips, including climbing the highest and most dangerous volcano in Eurasia - Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4850 m), skiing trips in the northern and polar Urals, Murmansk region and Kuznetsk Alatau.... Read more
Itinerary day by day:
Ufa - Sarva - Krasny Klyuch - the monastery "Holy Bushes"
We meet in Ufa. To participate in the tour you need to arrive no later than 8 am, if you are traveling by train, it would be a good idea to arrive the day before (most trains arrive in Ufa in the evening).
On the first day of our tour we go to the small village of Sarva, famous for its beautiful non-freezing lake-spring, which is the outlet of an underground river. Lake Sarva is small in area, its dimensions are about 80 meters in length and 38 meters in width. But its depth reaches the height of a 12-story building! Transparent bluish-green water allows you to see how the rocky bottom drops down into a mysterious dark abyss. The village of Sarva, despite the fact that it is located only 110 km from Ufa, is a real outback, the places to the east of Sarva are remote and wild. There are no settlements in that direction for several dozen kilometers.
Having enjoyed the beauty of the lake and the silence of the surrounding area, we head further. The Krasny Klyuch Spring awaits us - the most powerful water source in Russia and the second largest in the world! In terms of water consumption, it is slightly ahead of only the Fontaine de Vaucluse spring (France). It is not surprising that this landmark of Bashkiria received the status of a hydrological natural monument of federal significance.
The water in the spring is fresh, suitable for drinking, and its composition is hydrocarbonate-calcium. The water contains a large amount of lime. Scientists have calculated that in one second the spring throws out more than 1 kg of limestone with water (hundreds of tons per day)! Before the 1917 revolution, this spring was called White, according to one version, because of the white tint that the water has.
After visiting the spring, we will go to another beautiful place - the Assumption St. George Monastery - a beautiful architectural complex in a picturesque natural corner of Bashkiria. The popular name of the monastery is "Holy Bushes", it was assigned to it, since, according to legend, in the interweaving of birches and willows growing near the monastery, there was an appearance of a holy elder in shiny golden vestments with a cross in his hands.
We will spend the night at a cozy tourist center, where you can enjoy the surrounding nature, go to the bathhouse and celebrate the beginning of our journey with a delicious dinner.
Blue Lake - Abzanovsky Ice Waterfall - Askinskaya Ice Cave - Inzer Village
We get up early, because today we have a relatively long road and several interesting sights. First, we will stop by the Blue Lake. This is another picturesque non-freezing spring lake, named for the rare shade of water, and surrounded by limestone cliffs, which are beautifully reflected in it in good weather.
Then we will go to the Abzanovsky Ice Waterfall. Flowing down in a stingy stream in the summer, the Abzanovsky Waterfall turns into a wall of bizarre icicles in the winter, shimmering in the sun, and looks very impressive.
After examining the waterfall, we go to the Askinskaya Ice Cave. Despite its relatively small size (a little over 100 meters long, 26 meters high), this cave is a very interesting tourist attraction, as at its entrance there is a relict glacier that remains open all year round. The cave is an underground hall with an arched entrance and man-made sculptures made of relict ice. The approach to the cave is through the territory of the natural park along a path 2.5 km long in one direction.
After the excursion to the cave, we go to the village of Inzer, where we will stay at a tourist center.
Aigir
We head to the outskirts of the village of Inzer to take a walk to the picturesque pink rocks. The color of the rocks is explained by the fact that two billion years ago this place was the bottom of the sea, and the rocks are the remains of algae mixed with clay and deposits of manganese and iron. In winter, the pink rocks look especially contrasting against the white snow.
After the walk, we head to the village of Aigir, where we stay at a picturesque tourist center among the rocks and forests and go to explore the surroundings. And there is something to see here. Aigir is a cult tourist attraction for Bashkiria. For many people in the region, tourism began from this place. Having once seen the views from the Eagle Rocks, a person is forever infected with the spirit of hiking and adventure. Several hiking routes await us.
In addition to the picturesque cliffs with stunning views in Aigir, you can see such a historical landmark as the Borisov Furnaces (coal was burned in these parts in the 18th - 19th centuries), climb Mount Ufa (919 m high), and see picturesque ice rapids on the rivers. All routes are simple, accessible to everyone and take about 2-3 hours.
We spend the night at the tourist center in Aigir.
Aigir - Beloretsk - Tirlyansky village
We continue to explore the surroundings of Aigir, and then leave these places and head to another natural attraction of Bashkortostan - Inzerskie zubchatki. On the way we will stop in the city of Beloretsk, where we will walk around the city and have lunch, and for the night we will stop in the village of Tirlyansky, from where the next day we will go to explore the natural beauty.
Inzerskie Zubchatki
We are heading to the Inzerskie Zubchatki. This mountain range is rightfully considered the most beautiful in the Southern Urals. The range got its name from the Inzer River and the rocks that rise like teeth. In the summer, the road to the Inzerskie Zubchatki is difficult to pass even for SUVs, but we are going in winter, and this is our advantage. The most beautiful part of the ridge is the rock cirque. Rocks of bizarre shapes in the form of teeth are spread out here in a circle. The height of the rocks reaches 35 meters. Some rock formations look so bizarre that tourists involuntarily doubt their man-made nature. To see all the beauty of the Inzerskie Zubchatki, we will have a walk of about 4 km with an ascent, but it is worth it. A place of extraordinary beauty! After the walk, we return to the village of Tirlyansky.
Shulgan-Tash Nature Reserve - Kapova Cave - Muradymovskoe Gorge Nature Park
We are heading to one of the most famous sights of Bashkortostan - Kapova Cave, famous for its rock paintings included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The cave and its surroundings are part of the Shulgan-Tash Nature Reserve. We will visit the cave, admire the views from the observation deck and visit the historical and cultural museum complex dedicated to the study of the cave. After visiting the Shulgan-Tash Nature Reserve, we continue our march through the natural beauty of Bashkortostan. Our path lies towards the Muradymovskoe Gorge Nature Park. We will stay overnight at one of the tourist bases near the nature park.
Muradymovskoe Gorge
We are going for a walk along the Muradymovskoe Gorge – a picturesque section of the Bolshoy Ik River valley. The gorge and the surrounding areas are distinguished by their unique fairytale beauty. Here, the remains of ancient sea barrier reefs – reefogenic Devonian limestones – are exposed in the rocks. Their analogues are known only in the Harz Mountains in Germany. We spend the night at a tourist center near the gorge.
Bashkir Shikhans - Ufa
Today we will get acquainted with the Bashkir Shikhans - solitary mountains, the remains of an ancient reef formed on the bottom of the Permian Sea about 285 million years ago. Once there was a warm shallow ocean, and corals, sponges, and bryozoans grew on its bottom - all of this gradually turned into limestone, which the shikhans consist of. There are four shikhans in total: Kushtau, Yuraktau, Shakhtau and Toratau. The last one is the highest and most famous of them (it rises 406 meters above sea level, and 280 meters above ground level). The Yurmaty tribe (one of the seven ancestral tribes of the Bashkir people), who lived on the territory of the modern Ishimbay district since the 13th century, considered this mountain sacred: celebrations in honor of the main pagan holidays were held here. A path and a metal staircase lead to the mountain, which we will climb to see the surroundings, including other shikhans - Kushtau, Yuraktau, as well as a panorama of the city of Sterlitamak. The ascent to the mountain and descent from it takes about an hour. After the walk, we go to the capital of Bashkortostan - the city of Ufa, where we will see the main city attractions, such as the monument to Salavat Yulaev, the Lyalya-Tyulpan mosque, the First Cathedral Mosque of Ufa. We will walk around the central part of the city and have dinner in a restaurant of national cuisine. Overnight at a hotel in Ufa.
Home
Transfer to the airport / railway station and departure / departure from Ufa home. If your flight / train is in the evening, you can plan a visit to the National Museum of the Republic of Bashkortostan.